★★★☆☆ I remember nothing but the bobbles and Brierson

Marooned in Realtime

Vernor Vinge

I read Marooned in Realtime eleven years ago (15-Oct-2011). I barely remember it. This is unusual. Usually when I read the publisher's blurb for a book, it is sufficient to recall some impression -- perhaps not of the plot, but of why I read it, whether I liked the book overall, what made the most vivid impressions... But here I have almost nothing. I remember the idea of bobbles -- spherical pockets of stasis that freeze their contents in time and protect them from any outside influence. This idea has shown up elsewhere in Science Fiction.

The character Will Brierson is a clever variation on an old time-travel trope -- the person out of time. He was a detective in the 21st century (which, when this book was published in 1986, was the not-so-distant future -- now of course it has caught up with us) when he got bobbled. He became famous after his bobbling because his son wrote a series of detective books with him as the hero. The upshot is that, when everyone comes out of their bobbles, Brierson is much more famous than he ever was in life, and people expect him to be a much better detective than he ever really was. He turns out to be a pretty good detective, which is fun.

And that's about all I got. I'm rating this three stars on the assumption that if it was an outstanding book I would probably remember it better. That's pretty thin, so take this rating with a grain of salt.

Amazon review

Goodreads review

Comments

★★★☆☆ What is Silk?

Silk: A World History Aarathi Prasad I have mixed feelings about Aarathi Prasad 's Silk: A World History . It belongs to a nonfiction genre I call "history of substances". Notable books in that genre are Amy Butler Greenfield 's A Perfect Red , which is about cochineal, the red dye that comes from the cochineal bug, and Sophie D. Coe 's The True History of Chocolate . I loved both of those books -- they were as fascinating as novels. I am sorry to say, though, that Silk was less gripping. By the time I reached the end, I was eager to get there. There was one specific problem and some more general ones. Cochineal is a very specific thing -- it comes from the cochineal bug and no other source. That made Greenfield 's job in A Perfect Red circumscribed. Coe likewise had a well-defined job in describing the history of chocolate -- it's a product of the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao . Silk is NOT just one thing. Most of the silk you have ever seen is

★★★☆☆ Meh...

I am AI Ai Jiang I picked this up because it was nominated for the 2024 best novelette Hugo award. I was disappointed. So, here's a story you've heard before: someone invents something new. This new technology enables all kinds of stuff that was not possible before. There are winners and losers. The winners become powerful and rich, and they oppress the losers. Many people are unhappy, and human spirits are crushed. Then maybe, just maybe, a hero arises who, through the power of her humanity and art and soup redresses the injustice. (OK, I admit the soup part may be a novel touch.) Or maybe that doesn't happen, and we never get back what was lost. The horses don't return to the stables, hand-copied books very nearly vanish from the Earth... This is an old story. It dates back at least to the people who realized they could plant seeds and later harvest food, instead of the natural way, which is to find food growing wild. Soup was involved. It's a true story. Ai Jiang

★★★★★ A fantasy travel guide

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: The Newly Updated and Expanded Classic Alberto Manguel, Gianni Guadalupi, Graham Greenfield (Illustrator), James Cook (Maps and Charts) Seanan McGuire recently published a story-like thing called A Traveler's Guide to Fantastic Countries . It purports to be advertising copy for a travel agency that can arrange trips to such places as Avalon, Niflheim, and The Lost City of Z. This naturally made me think of other, less tongue-in-cheek reference works of fantastic lands. Two that I used to own are this one, The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: The Newly Updated and Expanded Classic and An Atlas of Fantasy (which I reviewed yesterday ). The Dictionary of Imaginary Places is a serious version of the joke that McGuire was making with her story. In the first (1980) edition Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi described a little over a thousand places (according to the Foreword for the 1980 edition), helped out by illustrator Graham Greenf

★★★☆☆ Fun, but I didn't believe it

Charlie Thorne and the Royal Society Stuart Gibbs We knew from the ending of Charlie Thorne and the Curse of Cleopatra that the next historic secret Charlie would chase after would be something discovered by Isaac Newton. In fact, as the title suggests, it is broader than that. This one involves not just Newton, but many of his colleagues and fellow members of the Royal Society of London. In fact, at 413 kindle pages, this is the longest Charlie Thorne installment so far, and that is partly because in addition to Newton, we end up chasing the history of several of his contemporary Fellows of the Royal Society. Although I really have no information about Stuart Gibbs 's creative process other than that revealed by the end matter in his books, I have long suspected that he writes his novels backward -- that is, that he imagines the end first, and then writes the earlier sections in order to move his people and pieces to the place where that ending can transpire. For what it'

★★★☆☆ This what it feels like to do science

The Bone Wars Erin Evan Erin Evan is a gifted story-teller, but an inexperienced novelist. In The Bone Wars she has written a good book. It could be better, and I am confident that her future books will be. The Bone Wars is principally about four paleontologists, grad student Sarah Connell, her PhD advisor Sean Oliphant, her mentor Derek Farnsworth, and teenage intern Molly Wilder. The story is told in the first person by these four characters, but Molly is the central character. The first thing I loved about The Bone Wars was its feeling of authenticity. Evan is herself a fossil-hunter. Even if no one told you this, you would recognize it. I was captivated by Molly's account of a long day spent lying on her side, working patiently to free a fossil femur from the rock in which it is embedded. If you have ever done research, you will recognize the peculiar combination of tedium and excitement that accompanies most research. I would have called it indescribable, had not Evan

★★★★★ An extraordinarily beautiful survival story

Island of the Blue Dolphins Scott O'Dell I was five years old in 1961, when Scott O'Dell 's Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, it won the Newbery Medal. Thus, I didn't read it until many years later. I still remember the impression it left on me -- like a jewel, perfect in its simplicity. The only thing I can compare it to is Gary Paulsen 's Hatchet , another survival story that left me with much the same feeling. Amazon review Goodreads review

★★★☆☆ Destination Uncanny Valley

Someone You Can Build a Nest In John Wiswell I have mixed feelings about John Wiswell 's debut novel Someone You Can Build a Nest In . Intellectually, it's one of the most interesting attempts I've read at a problem Science Fiction authors have always struggled with -- creating aliens that are actually alien. But emotionally, alas, I didn't really connect with it. Sadly, I finished the book with a feeling of relief. I don't guess Wiswell was aiming at Science Fiction, but rather Horror Fantasy. Fine, I don't care where the bookstore shelves it. It stars an alien monster that a science fiction author would be proud of. What's more, the alien monster, Sheshehen, is the main point of view character. And she is truly biologically alien. She's a blob of flesh and can voluntarily take any shape and incorporate anything she eats. Does she have bones? If she wants to, and if she eats something with bones. Her life-cycle, though inhuman, is more familiar. W

★★★★☆ Crimes of Passion

Death in the Spires K.J. Charles K.J. Charles 's Death in the Spires begins in 1905, when our hero Jeremy (Jem) Kite is called into his boss's office. His boss has just received an anonymous letter accusing Jeremey of murder. Jem immediately knows what this is about, because it's something he's been living with for ten years. The REAL beginning of our story is in 1892, when Jem shows up at Oxford as a new student. He is quickly taken up into a group of seven friends, revolving about Toby Feynsham. So brilliant are these seven, both in sports and scholarship, that they become known among their contemporaries as the "seven wonders". Until 1895, when Toby was murdered. The other six know that the murderer had to be one of themselves. But the murder has not been solved. Jem, prodded by the letter, is no longer able to let sleeping dogs lie, and begins to investigate. So it's a murder mystery with some of the usual elements common to most murder mysteries. Tw

★★★★☆ A history adventure

April Morning Howard Fast As a high-school student, my go-to American historical fiction author was Kenneth Roberts (probably because my father loved his novels). After I had read everything Roberts wrote, I moved on to Howard Fast . I believe April Morning was the first Howard Fast novel I read, but it was not the last. Fast was a prolific and popular author of that time. And I understand why. His novels were entertaining -- fast-moving, with lots of action. Also informative. For a high school student who grew up in New England and had visited the sites of the battles of Lexington and Concord, April Morning held a lot of interest. But, to be honest, I never really felt they broke out of entertaining into anything greater, as occasionally Roberts seemed to, or Esther Forbes 's Johnny Tremain . Compared to such classic writers of children's adventure stories as Robert Louis Stevenson or Laura Ingalls Wilder , Fast pales. I can recommend April Morning as a

★★★★☆ Murder of an astronomer

Stargazer Anne Hillerman Stargazer is the 24th book of the Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mysteries by Tony Hillerman and his daughter Anne Hillerman . It is the sixth in the series since Anne Hillerman 's 2013 series reboot. In this one Bernie is at the center of the action. All three of our protagonists (that would be, Bernie, Chee, and Leaphorn) are worrying about their futures and personal relationships. Chee is acting head of the police office where he and Bernie work because Chief Largo is off at a meeting. Largo is thinking of retirement, and Chee is his obvious successor, a prospect he does not at all relish. For several books now Bernie has been thinking about whether she wants to apply to become a police detective. Joe has been invited to participate in a task force to address the problem of lost and abused women. And as usual he's not quite sure how to manage his relationship with Louisa. So that's all pretty much business as usual. What about the mystery?

Search This Blog